


Sparkles

by vivi1138



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Birthday Fluff, Don't add to Goodreads, Don't copy to another site, Gen, Mention of Canonical Abuse, Pre-Relationship, Short & Sweet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-30
Updated: 2020-07-30
Packaged: 2021-03-05 19:08:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 601
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25610332
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vivi1138/pseuds/vivi1138
Summary: Harry's birthday always brings him something special; a sparkle of magic, in the shadows of his cupboard.
Comments: 11
Kudos: 53
Collections: A Very Harry Birthday!





	Sparkles

**Author's Note:**

> This is officially the shortest thing I've ever written.

On the night of Harry’s third birthday, the cupboard under the stairs lights up. He wakes and finds a slice of cake on a small plate. It’s chocolate. Harry can never have chocolate because Dudley is a growing boy who needs to eat all of it all the time. But no one will know, this time. It’s Harry’s cake. He doesn’t know it’s his birthday; he doesn’t even know what that means.

It’s the most delicious thing he has ever eaten.

It happens again when he’s four. This time, the cake looks like someone sat on it. The icing is dripping and gooey, and it’s bright blue with pink sparkles. A lot of sparkles. Whoever made that cake loves sparkles. It doesn’t look like much; it’s quite ugly, actually. But it’s for Harry; he eats it with a big smile on his face.

When he’s five, he knows when his birthday is, and he remembers the cakes, but Uncle Vernon says magic is a terrible thing that doesn’t exist (Harry doesn’t understand that logic) so Harry thinks they aren’t real.

The thing is, he keeps getting them, and maybe he starts believing in magic, just a bit.

The cakes improve as he grows older. At first, they still have pink sparkles or too much sugar or some weird ingredient that makes them taste like not-cake—perhaps the person who sends them to him was in an experimental mood—but they’re _Harry’s_. He looks forward to them every year.

He feels like he has a friend somewhere. When he’s eleven and back home after Hagrid brought him his Hogwarts letter (and a cake without sparkles), another cake is waiting in his new room. It’s gorgeous: the pieces have been assembled to build a pirate ship, and it looks just like one of Dudley’s toys. It’s not too sugary, either, which is a nice change. Harry whispers a thank you and hopes magic can carry his words.

He doesn’t get cake anymore after starting Hogwarts. He tries to forget his mysterious friend, but it’s difficult because it feels like being abandoned. Ron and Hermione and Mrs Weasley send him food, but it’s not the same. Little by little, he starts to think that it was his imagination.

On the morning of the thirty-first of July 1998, Harry is drinking a cup of tea in the kitchen of Grimmauld Place, bleary-eyed, while Kreacher is preparing Teddy’s formula with a renewed sense of purpose. Harry doesn’t sleep much since the war; an infant is making it even harder. Andi helps, but she breaks down when the baby changes his hair colour, so Harry is his primary caretaker. He doesn’t mind. But he’s glad his friends decided to forgo his birthday party. He doesn’t want to make a big deal out of it, and they were determined to do precisely that. Instead, they’ll just have a quiet dinner, and Harry thinks it’s perfect.

There’s a knock on the door, and he hopes Ron and Hermione didn’t change their mind and brought the entire DA to his doorstep. But no, it’s barely seven, Ron would never get out of bed that early.

It turns out Draco bloody Malfoy is a morning person.

It also turns out he brought him a birthday cake shaped like the Hogwarts Quidditch pitch, with marzipan Slytherin and Gryffindor players zooming above the stands. The cake is huge and hovering in front of Malfoy because Merlin forbid he carries anything heavier than a wand with his bare hands.

When Malfoy slices the cake, Harry notices edible pink sparkles inside, and he understands everything.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading!  
> If you liked this, you might enjoy [my other HP fics](https://archiveofourown.org/users/vivi1138/pseuds/vivi1138)
> 
> I can be found on [Tumblr](https://penguinanimagus.tumblr.com/) and [Twitter](https://twitter.com/FuzzyJawa) , come say hi!  
> 


End file.
